South American mythology doesn't usually show up as a basis for a game but the development team at the newly revealed Poland-based Gingerbread Studios is adding that kind of background to their just announced debut title. The Protector is a first/third person action game that uses two different playable characters, each of which is used in very different situations.

Those characters are British mercenary Jonathan Kane (the player guides him through the action-shooting series) and American archaeologist Jennifer Guile (she is the basis of the game's stealth action scenes). Together the duo are trying to combat a terrorist organization who wants to use an ancient artifact for, natch, nefarious purposes. The press release claims The Protector will have a fully interactive world, advanced AI and a variety of bad guys, including "mythical Aztec creatures." Start researching your ancient lost civilizations now. There's no word yet on a release date for the game.

Last week, I extolled the virtues of a crazy little platformer/shooter called Cave Story, and how I consider one of the best games of all-time. The problem is, though, that a lot of people aren't really into the whole action-adventure gameplay that Metroid, Castlevania, and Cave Story utilize. There are people who want uncomplicated platformers with left, right, and jump. For those people, there is no greater game than N.

Welcome, Herr Doktor. No doubt you have at least sampled the waters of the new TF2 update, resplendent in it's new content. However, you are not concerned over the new Gold Rush map, or the new Payload gametype. No, you are most likely aiming to obtain your überweapons: the Blütsauger, Kritzkrieg, and Übersaw. Unfortunately, you have to complete the many new medic achievements, ranging from the incredibly hard to the very simple. Thankfully for you, Herr Doktor, we have compiled a guide to acquiring those achievements in the easiest way possible. We have already given you the first, second, third and fourth, so here is the fifth. Keep this in mind the next time we proclaim our love for you.

The game is due for release on May 28 but today we have some new gameplay videos from the PC port of Mass Effect, the acclaimed sci-fi RPG from developer BioWare. You will be able to see how the game looks in comparison to the previously released Xbox 360 version. If you are not familiar with Mass Effect these movies will give you a taste of the gameplay goodness that will soon be available on your PC's hard drive.

Download the Mass Effect PC gameplay movies from Big Download now
Gameplay video 1
Gameplay video 2
Gameplay video 3
Gameplay video 4

Strategy fans looking for an updated experience in Rome are in luck. On Thursday, Paradox Interactive's Europa Universalis: Rome was patched to version 1.2 via the in-game auto-update system.

Patch 1.2 includes the original Day 1 patch as well as updates to the look and feel of the Roman environment and compatibility fixes on Vista and Intel graphic chip systems.

Europa Universalis: Rome was released on April 15 to mixed reviews and fan reaction. However, it appears some of the issues gamers found with the title are being addressed with automatic patches like the one released Thursday.

Major changes can be found after the jump.

Download the demo of Europa Universalis: Rome today!

It's always a good time to play games with your buddies, whether they are right next to you or if they are online thousands of miles away. Developers Turtle Rock Studios and Valve know this well. They also know that shooting through an army of zombies is fun, too. Thus was born the co-op oriented Left 4 Dead which Turtle Rock and Valve plan to spring on players sometime this fall.

Some new screenshots from the game just got released and they show a lot of folks who look like they need to take some baths going up against the flesh eating undead with a truckload of ordinance. Since this is Valve we are talking about here we are betting that even after the game is released there will be some extra content for the game that will find its way via its Steam client. In any case, we can't wait to get some hands-on time with Left 4 Dead very soon

It's really hard to make a fantasy RTS game and not compare it to Blizzard's hugely influential Warcraft series. Certainly the first screenshots released for the upcoming Battleforge have that kind of similar art style and look to their units.

However Battleforge, from developer Phenomic, is aiming to be something a bit different. Instead of mining resources to build units and structures, players will buy, sell and trade virtual collectible trading cards that will help them build their armies. Support for online tournaments and clans are also planned. We hope to get more info on the game before its publisher Electronic Arts sends it to stores this fall.

Electronic Arts couldn't get a in-house MMO to successfully launch so a couple of years ago it bought Mythic Entertainment and brought in their fantasy title Warhammer Online. The game is now scheduled for release this fall (after several delays) and now EA has announced that folks in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia will be able not just have the game ship to their shores at the same time as the North American and European launches but they will also be able to log onto a local Australian server

It's rare that an MMO title will begin its life in so many territories at once and having a server close to home will likely make it easier for those Aussies to enjoy the game without a ton of latency issues. Oh, and we have a boatload of new screenshots from the game to show off. There's a lot of visual goodness in this batch (depending on whether or not you like big huge monsters who show their guts . . .literally).

The post-apocalyptic world of the Fallout franchise has always been rife with humor and innovative imagery. While we all think we know what the aesthetic should resemble, it's up to the actual artists to try to find new ways to spin that aesthetic in novel ways, to keep the look fresh and appealing. Leading the charge is Bethesda's Adam Adamowicz, Concept Artist on Fallout 3.

In his latest Diary, Adam details the sometimes rigorous brainstorming sessions and countless revisions it takes to arrive at a truly immersive look and feel for the game, and presents several concept art sketches for our enjoyment. Included in this overview are the clothing, machines, architecture, robots, and assorted mutants and bad guys that populate the ravaged world of Fallout. If the finished product is anything even remotely like these sketches, we're all in for quite a treat. Enjoy!

Razer has just announced its latest lineup of gaming related accessories in the form of the Razer Goliathus soft-mat series. Goliathus is available in two flavors, one built for speed and the other for control and ship in three different sizes ranging from $14.99 to $24.99.

Co-developed by Razer techs and gaming professionals, the Goliathus brand promises to give gamers the edge in all gaming scenarios, from home all the way to professional gaming sessions, using Razer's woven fiber technology.

The pads will release later this month.

Deadly Rooms of Death is a great indie dungeon crawler/puzzler which, unfortunately, doesn't receive the attention it really deserves. The latest entry, The City Beneath, expanded upon the already magnificent puzzle-based gameplay in a myriad of ways. It was also released last year (in April) to little fanfare except in the indie community. Thankfully, though, there is now an official trailer that shows off some of the excellent gameplay elements. You can check out the embedded video after the break. If it interests you, check out the main site for a demo and ways to get the full version.

[Via TIGSource]

City of Heroes and City of Villains scribe Shane Lacy Hensley has been tapped by publisher FireSky to head Superstition Studios. Hensley, who is famously known for creating such pen and paper RPGs as Deadlands, will lead development of a new MMORPG that has yet to be detailed.

Prior to the promotion, Hensley was the creative director of Superstition where his vision and key hiring decisions made him the "perfect" candidate for the promotion, according to FireSky senior vice president of product development Rod Nakamoto. "With Shane's leadership, success is a given for Superstition Studios."

Without giving specifics on Superstition's mysterious upcoming release Hensley explained his work with the studio is helping to fulfill a career-long dream. "FireSky and Superstition Studios have given me the creative freedom to build the game I've been dreaming of since I entered the video game industry back in 1992."

Currently FireSky is developing Stargate Worlds, based on the long running science fiction series Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, which is now accepting beta sign-ups.

cactus has long been established as a complete beast of a developer. The indie developer has developed complete games in the time it takes the normal person to finish Super Mario Bros, as has done it yet again. Working on a competition where the goal is to create a functional game in 3 hours, cactus has make a quirky little arena shooter with unique mechanics called Kryzta.

Your goal is to kill other ships by luring enemies into shooting their buddies. Once an enemy dies, you can collect his little chunks for points. After a while, you can utilize a special shot as well. It's very simple, like most of his games, but very fun and easy to pick up. Pick up the download off of the competition thread!

[Via IndieGames]

What is the next leap that is needed for gaming-oriented PCs? According to Dell's gaming PC subsidiary Alienware it's not a faster processor or graphics card but moving to a more powerful operating system. In a new News.com article Alienware's desktop product manager Marc Diana says the major PC hardware companies (Microsoft, Intel, NVIDIA, AMD) need to move collectively to fully support 64-bit based operating systems.

Ever since the release of Windows 95 13 years ago, most PC games have supported 32-bit based OSs with only a few that have fully supported 64-bit systems natively. In fact Diana admits Alienware doesn't even bother to offer 64-bit based PCs because the driver support for such a system isn't available, in their opinion. Yet going to a 64-bit OS would not only increase performance for PCs in theory it would also allow gaming PCs to have memory that can break the current 4GB limit that 32-bit OS have.

Diana said other factors could also help in making more powerful PCs in the future including moving to DDR3-based memory that use less power but are clocked higher than DDR2-based memory. At the moment DDR3-based memory is still much more expensive than the norm.